WINTER PROTECTION FOR TENDER SHRUBS

SHRUBS COVERED WITH BURLAP FOR WINTER PROTECTION,,,

...IN BLACKHAWK MARINA PARK

Monday,  8:45 AM.  33 degrees F at the ferry dock, 29 on the back porch.  Wind ENE, gale force.  The sky has a low overcast with scattered lower clouds.  There is heavy fog over the channel and it is snowing hard but intermittently.  The humidity is 93% and the barometer is rising, now at 29.48".  It is an awesomely nasty day.

   Black Hawk Marina Garden, on Wilson Ave. and Third St., next to the Municipal Boat Ramp, is built around a dry-docked flotilla of old fishing boats.  As I have written previously, it has a nice, if somewhat eclectic, collection of plants, and is quite artistically designed.
   Some of the plants are semi-hardy and are receiving winter protection.  Burlap protects a number of Korean boxwood shrubs.  There may be different shrubs under the burlap as well; I didn't want to disturb anything to look underneath.   I think the Korean boxwood would be O.K. without protection right next to the lake, but it is a windy spot so obviously the gardener knows best (I can hear the wind singing in the guy wires of the masts of stored sailboats even as I write).

   I personally don't bother with winter protection for trees and shrubs, preferring either to use hardy plants or let them tough it out, but I applaud those who are that ambitious if it suits their garden plans.   As I have said before, this is a very nice little garden and public space.  It is not a City of Bayfield garden, but created and maintained by the owner of the  Black Hawk Marina.
   This garden gives a lot of pleasure to residents and tourists alike.